Pre-Conventional Wisdom
As the Democratic National Committee gets underway, I had a few thoughts I thought I would share.
- Despite Evan Bayh not being on the ticket, Indiana is still in play and will come down to a good old-fashioned ground war. The GOP has one of the best get-out-the-vote operations in the nation, but the Obama people are opening offices and engaging in massive voter registration drives.
- The last best hope for Jill Long Thompson to run a competitive race against Mitch Daniels just went out the window. Had Barack picked Evan Byah, the Governor’s race would have become a U.S. Senate race because the Governor would pick Bayh’s replacement. Millions of dollars would have flown into the state to her campaign. Now she’s on her own.
- The Biden pick also makes me turn my attention towards Mitt Romney as John McCain’s VP choice.
- A final note from Springfield, one unofficial count put the crowd at 30,000. Not bad from the 10,000 that were there 17 months ago. However, I’ve never seen so many people who drive hybrid vehicles leave behind so much paper, trash and empty water bottles.
August 25th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Who cares besides the partisan who love the team, and the partisans who hate the team? It’s only the first of two otherwise boring and tedious coronations.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Barack Hussein Obama makes me as much ashamed of my country as Bush does.
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Good citizens never litter, Abdul. They carry their trash around in their purse until they can recycle it.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:40 am
It’s a matter of degrees, but all humans are hypocrites- ask anyone who takes parenting seriously.
That said, I’m continually amazed by those who wear the environmentalist label as fashion, the “enviro-mental” for whom the fix is always someone else’s problem & money; vs. the true environmentalists I know, most of whom are hunters & outdoors people.
The “enviro-mental” wouldn’t want to cart that trash in their vehicles unless they received two-dimensional instructions to do so, via print or electronic advertising media.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Melyssa, of all the things you’ve typed on here, many of which I support, the above post was the stupidest. What in the world has BO done to make you ashamed?
You are right about the litter. People seem to do it everywhere. My current pet peeve is cigarette butts thrown on the ground. As if our sidewalks and streets are folks’ ashtrays. Ugh.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I have been watching news casts showing the Pepsi arena in Denver and each time I see those giant plasma televisions running constantly even though the place is empty. So much for the party that is going to save the planet. Also, according to the Colbert Report Denver has run out of limos for the convention.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Actually Indiana isn’t in play. Obama couldn’t even win his own primary in this state despite Rudy Clay’s “funny business” to help him. But, now all of a sudden he is going to be the first Democrat to win the state since 1964? O ok, ya sure.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Think again…Back in February I was going to vote for BO. I started digging harder after he endorsed Andre Carson.
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BO has absolutely no experience that makes him qualified to run America. He was a street activist…streets that are no better off today than they were when he was an activist.
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It is fact that most of America is now
run by Democrats. More dems in Congress, state level, county level, city level elected officials are democrats. Most major cities are blue, not red.
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If our country is in such dire need of this “change” Obama proclaims, then why does he not put the blame squarely on his own party for our condition since they are the ones mostly in charge?
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August 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
you ever see woodstock after all the lefty enviromentalist left? looked like a city dump and smelled worse that the hippies that left. i’m talkin bout the woodstock concert a few years ago. also look what deer creek (verizon), looked like after a dead or phish concert.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Wow, Melyssa…revisionist history must’ve been your college major.
George W. Bush is in charge of this nation, regretably. Has been for 7.5 years. For six of those years he had both houses of Congress.
Blame that dope John McCain if you’re going to blame anyone.
And if you’re going to put the “condition of the streets” on the back of BO, because he was once a street-level activist, then your standard of blame is remarkably, and uniquely, odd. You’re in for a lot of heartache in your life.
In the real world, I, too, was pissed at Barack’s endorsement of Andre. I expressed my concern to the BO campaign, for whom I’d volunteered and to whom I’d contributed for over 15 months, and they politely listened. I know they heard the same form many folks. They made a calculated judgment, and evidently my sentiment was in the distinct minority.
Because Barack won Marion County overwhelmingly.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
TA, just because a strategy was successful does not mean it was principled or that it was the right thing to do.
Obama’s endorsement of Andre was the first sign to many thoughtful, principled Central Indiana voters that, however many votes he gets or how popular he is, a BO presidency is highly undesirable.
August 25th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
That’s assigning a WHOLE LOT of importance to BO’s endorsement of Andre, Pack.
I don’t think it moved many people one way or the other–for either candidate.
Every statewide candidate makes choices about endorsing other candidates. Barack made his, and it was Andre. So be it.
I disagreed with him, but that does not mean I won’t still support Barack. I’ll base my support on a multitude of issues. The same way my circle of friends does…and we’re all over the map philosophically.
August 25th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Abdul,
Mitt would make a great president and you are probably right that McCain will select him but with BO snubbing women (especially Hillary..ouch) with his selection when the polls were showing that older women weren’t too crazy about him before his VP pick, well if McCain were really smart he would trump BO and choose a woman as his VP. Who could be more qualified than Condi Rice? I guess she’s not interested. Too bad.
August 25th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I think Melyssa’s comment about Democrats largely running America’s cities is worth noting. If Democratic policies were working, how come Detroit, DC, Chicago, and Cleveland- all of which have had Democratic Mayors AND Democratic Councils for the past 20+ years each- haven’t shown marked improvement in areas Democrats are supposed to own the field in, such as poverty and employment?
I think it’s a very fair question, and one that begs a few books.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I will Obama credit for conning Indiana and Virginia, voters into thinking he was considering Bayh and Kaine for VP. He needs the electoral votes from Indiana and Virginia. To keep the voters on his hook he made a phone call to the disappointed Indiana delegation seeking their continued support even though Bayh was not his choice.
The news broke on Channel 8 TV around 12:59 AM Saturday morning about Biden for VP and most of his supporters received the text message about 3:30 AM.
Now we will finally see what Obama really stands for. No change from selecting a veteran Washington insider to balance his lack of experience in foriegn policy and military ability. It is politics as usual and the democrats will continue to blame the Republicans for repeating all of the negative statements his democrats opponents said about him during the primary elections.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Yeah Mike that wild-eyed Democratic liberal Blomberg, and his predecessor Guiliani…oops.
More government than any other city in America, right there in NYC. Imposed, mostly by those two mayors.
Some Republicans like govt. so much they’re just going to buy it.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Thanks Mike. It is logic. And Biden isn’t about “change”. Look at your credit card statements if you still have debt. Don’t they all come from Biden’s state of Delaware? Why do you think those predatory credit card companies locate in Biden’s state? If you don’t think we’re getting more of the same with Obama/Biden, you need to read more.
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Biden, a career politician in office for almost 4 decades, does not represent this supposed positive change Obama will bring.
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Not one of our presidential candidates is talking about leading America out of debt either. WAKE UP! There is a reason the U.S. Comptroller quit his job to travel to every state to put on town hall meetings to warn us of the debt.
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We need a plan, and one fast, to get America on her feet. She’s deep in debt and Russia and China are flush with cold hard cash.
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Again, why aren’t our candidates (other than Barr) talking about this.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Think Again- Okay, so you dodged with a little bait & switch. It doesn’t answer the question, though.
Notice that I didn’t name NYC, because it hadn’t had a consistent Democratic leadership. That said, I’ve had it argued to me that NYC cleaned up under Giuliani enough that the tourists came back. That’s some kind of progress that Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago can’t claim. Yes, too much government there for me to like, but I hardly think that’s Giuliani’s fault. Bloomberg is more guilty on that count.
I’m not crazy about Republicans, my friend. They give me far more government than I want as well. They’re about to have a lot less to do with it, come January, so I’d like to know what good the Dems have to offer. Their track record in these cities does not inspire hope.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Our candidates aren’t talking about the U.S. debt because it doesn’t help them get (re)elected- yet. It’s not sexy. It’s not largess they can ladle out like lower taxes, a new dam project, or expanded health care (irregardless of affordability). With more publicity like I.O.U.S.A., more people determined to publicize the crisis (like Melyssa & Libertarians), and unfortunately more dire statistics, perhaps somebody can get elected on fiscal conservatism. Our democratic republic that’s fixated on juvenile, two-party clod-throwing is going to look pretty bogus when the totalitarian and oligarchy regimes can eat and we can’t. The most basic law is that of survival, and that’s what we think we’re smarter than if we ignore economics.
August 26th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Think Again…please visit the HFFT blog and read about the “Obama Camp”. What we published on HFFT is not even the tip of the iceberg of the 1000′s of first hand voter fraud reports published and video testimonies available on the internet. MSM won’t touch it.
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MSM has its orders. The NEOCONS screwed up too much. We’re getting the SOCIALISTS and corporatism instead.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Make that “…eat and buy fuel for HEAT and we can’t.”
August 27th, 2008 at 6:05 am
How crazy would it be…if…mccain made hillary his vp? …game over! we are going to be in a mess for a couple years, regardless, who gets to run this goat rodeo!